KINGSMEAD residents can help to decide if their village should be a separate parish in its own right when a new consultation starts in January.

Despite having its own distinct boundaries, two thirds of Kingsmead lies within Davenham parish with the remaining third in Northwich.

Residents showed little interest in making Kingsmead into a separate parish when Davenham Parish Council carried out a consultation in 2002, but Vale Royal Borough councillor Will Charlton believes circumstances have changed.

He said: "The difference is that now there's a venue for a parish council to meet, the new school for example, which wasn't there before.

"Another reason for parishing is community safety - to encourage people to come together over things such as vandalism.

"Kingsmead is that much older, there are more people and it's time they were given this opportunity - it's time to do it again."

Information leaflets will be sent to homes in the village and Clr Charlton hopes a public meeting will be held in February, then the long process to create a new parish can begin, if people decide that is what they want.

Davenham Parish Council would welcome this, as councillors believe the amount of time they have to devote to Kingsmead limits their overall effectiveness.

At the last meeting of the parish council, on November 29, Clr Brian Robinson said: "This council should explain its strong view to the borough council that we wish Kingsmead to have its own parish council.

"It was thrust upon us against our objections at the time and now the council is nearly half what it was and we spend most of our time trying to co-opt people to cover the Kingsmead ward."

But Northwich Town Council does not support the consultation because of the financial loss it may suffer if Kingsmead became its own parish.

gbebbington@guardiangrp.co.uk